I started my week long Arkansas vacation in Joplin on the first day and night off, met a couple of my models from Fayetteville there and updated photos of one of my Joplin models as well while there. Joplin is the home of many things and I`m usually there in late September for the Rock and Gem Show as well, but some people have no clue that there is a very pretty waterfall there, guessing because its located outside the city limits just barely, but in recent years the county has adopted it and turned it into a county park, which is a good thing, believe me.
Grand Falls has the widest base of any waterfall at least in the midwest, if not the entire USA, and flows constantly, fed constantly by Shoal Creek which is spring fed and is as wide as any major river.
I have shot models at this beautiful waterfall for several years and I`m glad to see a police presence there these days. A few years ago, I was fortunate to shoot a beautiful sunset there with one of my Oklahoma models, Tim Lee…we were actually on our way to dinner when we left the motel and saw the clouds forming up for a great sunset…so Tim ran and got his Aussie Swimshorts and I grabbed my camera and off we headed to the falls, putting dinner plans on hold. We got there with just a few minutes to spare and it turned out to be one of those sunsets where the clouds just seem to know you need some extra time and hang up there for a while…giving us lots of options on where to shoot, top of the falls, side of the falls and down in front on the rocks…we took advantage of the hanging light and made the most of it…while most people were leaving the park we practically ran to it.
…and here at the waters edge with the fading glow of the sunset…
While we didn`t get a great sunset two weeks ago there, we did get some great shots….and a cooperative crowd as well…which you cant always count on there…I took both of my Fayetteville models there, Crys Rae and Dane Adams, shot some pics of them separately and then together…
Crys is one of my favorite models to work with, shot him for the first time down near Lake Ouachita and Mount Ida two years ago, we found twenty seven waterfalls to shoot in that day in a tributary creek that flows into the Little Missouri River and then wound up at the end of the day at Little Missouri Falls nearby.
We were upstream about a mile from the Albert Pike Campground, where the twenty or so campers, many of them children, lost their lives in the tragic flood several weeks ago. Our prayers go out to their families and to the rescuers and recovery personnel as well. We can only hope that the government will do the right thing and install some type of warning system to keep it from happening again. The canyons in that area are deep and narrow, necessitating alot of warning time to get oneself up and out of there and to safety. I pray the Forest Service will do the right thing for the sake of those lost and the sake of all who go to those pretty areas to hike and camp each year.
As I was saying, Crys is one of my fave models to work with, he is in very fit condition, nicely toned, and hot looking…backed up by all the gals that were in attendance at Grand Falls that evening we were shooting…not sure how long Crys has been modeling, but this boy knows how to move and show off his muscle tone. He looks like an art statue to me most of the time and so thats the way I normally shoot him, like a work of art.
He had jeans on and decided to get them wet, and he climbed down to the base of the falls and found a large rock down there, which was covered in this green goo, algae at its finest I`m sure, but like the trooper that he is, he didnt let a little thing like that stop him from creating works of art…
After shooting several pics of him reclining on the rock, I had him stand, and without any direction from me, he got into my favorite pose, which I call a twist and turn, which shows off guys and gals very well…again, the statue of art…
..he just had to watch his footing with the rock being so gooey and slick…and then after shooting several standing poses, he decided to climb into the base of the falls themselves…
and get soaked really good…so I tried some special effects while in the water and liked what I saw…so did he…here he is climbing out of the falls…
and then the special effects version is this….
almost gives it a posterized look…
Then I shot some pics of Dane, who was new to glamour modeling….he climbed down to the base of the falls and started out with some dryer poses at first…I gave him some direction at first because it is extremely hard for a model to hear when down at the base of the falls, even if I were yelling at them, its difficult to understand and so we went over some hand signals too…
Dane has what I call a slim toned build and a captivating smile, as well as smiling eyes…and is great to work with…he caught a lot of attention from the ladies there as well…one in fact, actually came over and asked if she could sit on the ledge above him and watch, and within just a few minutes started yelling at him and trying to boost his confidence and get him to do some poses of her own ideas. He did his best not to ignore her, but like he said, he couldnt hear her due to the roar of the falls anyway, but she finally got the idea and stopped trying…he climbed up on the slimy log after getting wet down and did a great job of producing some art himself…
Dane has what I call a slim toned build and a captivating smile, as well as smiling eyes…and is great to work with…he caught a lot of attention from the ladies there as well…one in fact, actually came over and asked if she could sit on the ledge above him and watch, and within just a few minutes started yelling at him and trying to boost his confidence and get him to do some poses of her own ideas. He did his best not to ignore her, but like he said, he couldnt hear her due to the roar of the falls anyway, but she finally got the idea and stopped trying…he climbed up on the slimy log after getting wet down and did a great job of producing some art himself…
Then we went up on top of the falls and shot a few up above…they decided since they were already wet and it was so hot, they would just remain wet…totally wet….
…so they laid down in the water, Crys the art statue, first…
Dane tried the same areas that Crys was reclining in but found that his taller frame just didnt fit as well in those little nooks and crannies like Crys did…but he looked just fine to me….
They then got back down by the log and rocks and did some duo poses in the spray, since they were good and wet already….
and then thinking we might actually get a nice sunset, the way the clouds were forming up, they walked out into the water at the top of the falls again. I decided to shoot with one of my sunset filters and see if I might be able to help things out a bit…not sure if it helped or not, but I liked what results I got from it…
and one last image….